The Best Kind of Tea
by GamblingDementor
Summary: Varrick makes Zhu Li some tea.


"Zhu Li! It's time for tea!"  
>The voice of Varrick boomed through the hall and caught Zhu Li by surprise. She had been working on new airplanes construction plans and was rather focused on the wing design when he shouted and made her lose all concentration. Dropping her pen, she frowned and put order in her papers before going to the source of his shout, the kitchen. Truth be told, it was surprising, and not only because she had been distracted from her work. Varrick almost never called for her that way anymore. Ever since they had been reunited, he always let her do her thing and when he had to come look for her, he came to her and kindly asked whatever it was he had to say.<p>

"What is it? I was working on…"  
>The words died on her lips when she opened the kitchen door wide and saw why Varrick had called her in.<br>"I made you tea."  
>That was the understatement of the year. Lined up on the large table in the center of the room were dozens of teapots, cupcakes and cookie platters, more than she could count. She had never seen so many delicious looking treats at the same time. Standing in the middle of it with a huge grin on his face was Varrick. When his smile turned into a fond smirk, she noticed she had been staring for far too long and shook her head, snapping out of her distraction.<br>"How about that, huh?" he said with the devilish grin he had been giving her more and more recently.  
>"Varrick, I…"<br>"Come with me, my beautiful sweet tiger seal, and have some tea."  
>He took her arm and led her to a small table in a corner. It had a beautiful plaid table cloth, a few tea cups and little plates, every sort of sugar, milk and honey she could imagine and a vase of moon flowers. She sat carefully, looking at everything with amazement. The table only had one chair.<br>"Where will you sit?"  
>"I can't sit, Zhu Li! How else do you expect me to serve you tea!"<br>She felt her cheeks blush despite herself and nodded.

Varrick waltzed away and fluttered about the big table, his hands lingering over the tea pots but not quite deciding which one to choose. Finally, he turned to Zhu Li and, with a sheepish smile, scratched the back of his head.  
>"I didn't know your favourite tea so I made all of them."<br>"All?"  
>"All I could find."<br>She was unable to stop smiling. It felt good to smile so much around him, to trust him, to love him.  
>"So, which one do you want, tiger seal?"<br>He had taken to calling her by this pet name. She had never been called anything like that, least of all by him, and she liked it. A lot.  
>"Do you have jasmine tea?"<br>"For you, my dear, anything."  
>He stretched his arm as far as he could to grab a small blue teapot on the opposite side of the table and piled up a few cookie platters on his other arm. Zhu Li had never known he had such good balance. She wondered if she could ever find a use for it. He set the cookies in front of her and poured her a cup of jasmine tea.<br>"Here is for the loveliest person in the world!"  
>She stifled a giggle and accepted the cup he handed her.<br>"It smells delicious. I'm sure it must be really good tea!"  
>"I sure hope so! I had it imported from Ba Sing Se's Jasmine dragon!"<br>"From so far? But you didn't even know it was my favourite."  
>"All of them are the best of the best!"<br>"I'll be the judge of that," she said with a teasing smile.  
>She took a sip. As soon as the tea touched her lips, she had to close her eyes and enjoy it to the fullest. She almost moaned at the delicious taste but caught herself. Varrick would never let her live that down otherwise.<br>"This is really good tea," she admitted when she reluctantly put the cup down.  
>"Of course it is! Lord Zuko's own uncle founded that tea shop!"<p>

Zhu Li would have been just as happy sipping that cup of delicious tea, just that one, but Varrick seemed to have other plans.

"Now, the cookies I did not all bake myself, but I can assure you that I bought them from the best of the best."

He crouched beside her and started piling cookies on a small plate in front of her.

"Varrick…"

"Now, I know you don't like raisins, so don't worry, there aren't any in these. I think you'll particularly like the small round ones, they come from…"

"Varrick!"

"… the Southern Water Tribe, I actually did bake those myself. Do you remember? I asked you to find the recipe. It was rather easy to…"

"VARRICK!"

He finally snapped out of it and looked at her with widened eyes.

"Yes, my sweet?" he asked with a voice that betrayed nervousness.

She took his hands in hers, stroking her thumb across his palm.

"This is perfect."

He visibly relaxed and gave her a completely genuine smile.

"I'm glad to hear that, Zhu Li."

She nodded slightly in encouragement and for a moment, they simply stared into each other's eyes, happy to just be together.

After a while, Varrick stood up abruptly and ran to the table, grabbing five different teapots.

"Now these you have to taste, tiger seal."

She couldn't help but let out a chuckle, seeing him balance so many teapots on his arms.

"This is ginseng tea. I've heard that it was General Iroh's favourite. This particular one comes from a small town in the eastern Earth Kingdom. I've had it imported, turns out there are a lot more tea sellers in Republic City than I thought and you can actually order any sort of tea you want, they'll get it for you!"

He served her a cup and waited eagerly for her to take a sip. Only when she drank some and nodded her appreciation did he serve another cup of another tea.

"This brew is very special. It comes from the Fire Nation and is the official favourite of the Fire Lord. I've ordered it from the imperial city itself."

"I can't imagine how much you've paid for this."

"I love you more than my wealth."

Coming from Varrick, this was about as much of a passionate never ending love promise as could be. She leaned to give him a kiss. She did not often kiss him, much preferring being kissed, but sometimes, things just had to be done.

"Now tell me about that one," she said when she broke the kiss, pointing to a large black teapot.

"Well funny you should ask, sweet Zhu Li! That one is red tea from Ba Sing Se. It's quite popular in the upper ring. I've heard it's also loved by students of the university."

"How about those cookies?"

"They are Avatar cookies. To be fair, they are completely raw, so I wouldn't eat them if I were you."

In the end, he managed to make her taste at least a sip of almost every single sort of tea he had made, with a little story for each and every tea he poured into the cups. Zhu Li accepted everything as it came, drinking the tea, eating the cookies, and by the time they were done, she had eaten more than she did in the last ten years. Varrick was usually the foodie, not her. Looking at all the plates and cups, she wondered if she would have to wash everything or if his generosity would extend to that.

"This is the last one you haven't tasted yet, I think."

"I don't think I can do much more, Varrick. I'll explode."

"But this is the most special of all! You can't just stop now!"

"_Fine_, but after that, I'm done."

"But you've barely touched the green tea cookies!"

"You've made me eat three of them, Varrick, I would hardly call that _barely touched_."

He pouted and all she could do was laugh. Ceremoniously, he took the last teapot and poured a cup. Zhu Li accepted it and, looking at him with an expression that said that this was _definitely _her last cup of tea of the day, she took a sip. Varrick looked at her with satisfaction. The tea tasted absolutely perfect. Just right.

"What's this one?" she asked. "And can I have some more?"

"This one," he said, pouring her another cup, "is a very special blend."

"It's my favourite."

"I'm glad you said that, because I've had it made just for you."

"What do you mean?"

"You know there's barely a thing money can't buy, Zhu Li. I've had this blend created by tea experts. Told them about you, how perfect you are, and this is what they came up with. And since you like it, it's officially going to be sent to all tea shops of Republic city and be called the Zhu Li!"

"Varrick, you can't just create new tea like that."

"I can, and I have!"

Well, at least the Zhu Li tea would be delicious. And even if it wasn't, all tea Varrick made for her was the best kind of tea.


End file.
